


Shedding Annoyances

by Cherry_Sofa_729



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Sweetheart, Back Scratches, Blood, Blood and Gore, Crying, Deceit | Janus Sanders Sheds His Skin, Deceit | Janus Sanders is a Sweetheart, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Shedding, Sick Character, Sickfic, Swearing, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Sympathetic Dark Sides (Sanders Sides), Sympathetic Deceit | Janus Sanders, molting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26545036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherry_Sofa_729/pseuds/Cherry_Sofa_729
Summary: When Janus is faced with a snake-like problem that makes him overly emotional, his feelings about Virgil come bubbling to the surface.And Lizard PMS is a lot easier to deal with with friends
Comments: 9
Kudos: 184





	Shedding Annoyances

**Author's Note:**

> This does contain swearing

He itched.

Janus yawned, lazily sitting up and rubbing his cheek with his palm. He knew what day it was. He knew every time. But this was different.

This time he was light side.

He whined, flopping down and curling up in his covers to sleep the day away.

What. The goddamn. Fuck.

Thomas was yelling at him. Screaming at him to get his ass down to the common area. He had some stupid fucking problem again and he wanted Janus to help him, because Janus was ALWAYS supposed to help!

The summon came again, stronger and harder than ever. Ironically, his itch came back with the same vengeance at the same time.

He groaned, contemplating his choices.

Janus could go down, in his pyjamas, gross, grey face completely on display, and explain to them that he was sick. He could watch their faces transform into horror and disgust as they cast him back to his room.

Or, he could go down with a facade. Outfit on, _god, his itchy, scratchy outfit,_ and conceal his face, and be forced to stand for a stupidly long conversation.

But that way, he didn’t have to deal with their disgusted looks, their probing questions about his problem, he just had to suck it up and suffer for a while to be left alone for the rest of the afternoon and night.

He made up his mind. He snapped his fingers, putting on his- _itchy, tight, ANNOYING_ \- outfit. Instantly he felt his shed crawl, begging him to go back to bed, back to sleep. His legs ached as he put weight on them, as he snapped again to hide his gross, grey, drooping face. Everything hurt. His back, his legs, his head, god, he just wanted to sleep.

But Thomas, apparently, had other plans. With another summon, he sank down. He can do this.

He cannot do this.

Every second, every minute, his body hated him a little more. He could barely stand up anymore, he wanted so desperately to lay down and sleep for a thousand years.

Or maybe find some sandpaper and scrub his scales off. The itch, oh god it drove him insane. It consumed his thoughts and made him fade out from the conversation. And worse, he couldn’t soothe it in the slightest without revealing his secret.

He shivered as his back screamed, begging to be scratched. He settled for hunching his shoulders.  
“What do you think, Jan?”

Janus tried to refocus on the conversation and not on the insane itch on his back. He thought for a moment, trying to see potential outcomes for the situation.

He couldn’t.

His face went pale. He was blind, unable to use any sort of foresight. He was in blue.

He hated this stage. This was always the worst part, the part where the itch and fatigue became all-consuming, leaving him more wild animal than man. And he had never been outside of his room like this before. 

A lump formed in his throat. Out here, the humidity wasn’t high enough, it wasn’t nearly hot enough, and this whole environment was just shitty. This could actually cause him problems. Like, actual health concerns.

“Uh, I agree with Roman. I think we could go with that course of action.” He said as affirmatively as he could, given that he had no way to see how Roman’s actions would harm or help Thomas.

Virgil’s gaze suddenly locked into him.

He knew, oh god Virgil knew. Janus didn’t know if he should be scared or relieved. Virgil knowing could end this whole scheme.

Then again, maybe he wanted it to end.

But Virgil glanced away, and didn’t make any mention of it. Yet. 

Janus didn’t know if he should sigh with relief or blow up in anger.

As he was sucked into the conversation he couldn’t help thinking about how it used to be. At least on the dark side, when he got like this, he had Virgil. He could always trust Virgil to have his back.

God, he was getting emotional. He stuffed his feelings down, but not his thoughts. Virgil used to explain the outcomes to him when he couldn’t see them. Virgil would help him, take _care_ of him.

God, he wanted someone to take care of him.

After he finished explaining, for lack of a better word, why he agreed with Roman’s idea, a burning, itchy pain rippled his back.

He grit his teeth hard, god he wanted, no, needed to scratch. The itch scorched his skin like fire ants, he needed to scratch! But he couldn’t, what about his pride? That would be insanely embarrassing, especially after going through such lengths to conceal his condition. 

But Jesus Christ, nothing had ever felt like this before. Something was wrong, which terrified him to no end. His brain didn’t really want to consider that possibility. But something had to be going wrong, his shed had never felt like it was on fire in all his years of being part snake. 

Now that he thought about it, the soreness of his whole body wasn’t really normal either. And he wanted to collapse because of the fatigue.

Desperate, he grasped blindly for a straw to hold. Virgil. Virgil knew. Virgil would help.

Another burning, itchy pain spasmed through his spine and he made up his mind. He fixed his eyes squarely on Virgil and begged.

He begged as hard as he could for Virgil to do something, anything, that would let him leave.

 _Please._ He spoke in his mind. _Please, something’s wrong, please help, please let me go. It itches so bad, please…_

Virgil’s eyes met his and he sighed with relief. Surely, he’d help him now. 

Virgil looked him dead in the eyes, definitely aware of what was going on, and glanced away.

_No no no please…_

Of course, how could he be so dense as to think Virgil still cared about him! God, he was such a colossal idiot!

No, Virgil didn’t care. Not anymore.

And with that, he sunk out, unable to keep a handle on his emotions any longer.

Janus flopped down on his bed, chest heaving up and down, cries already bursting from his throat. 

_He doesn’t care about you. He wants you to suffer. He wants you to be hurt._

Why should Virgil care? They weren’t friends anymore. He didn’t have to care about Janus. It was really Janus’ fault for expecting that of him, when they had parted ways long ago. 

He began to sob, emotions bubbling and reaching the surface as he clutched his bedsheets and cried loudly and messily.

During a shed, he found that often times it was hard to stop crying. No matter how many times he tried to get his breathing under control or to quell his tears, his thoughts always went back to Virgil.

Virgil leaving him. Virgil abandoning him when he needed.

Oh god, he was going to drown on his tears.

He needed to stop crying. He had things to do.

_Virgil doesn’t care about you because of what YOU did._

Another wave of emotions crashed over him and he was back to uncontrollable sobbing.

He didn’t deserve to get comfortable. He didn’t deserve the heat and humidity and comfortable clothes. He deserved to lay here and suffer for what he did to make Virgil abandon him.

By the time he felt remotely coherent again, it had been a couple hours. 

Truthfully, he still wasn’t feeling too coherent. But, at a certain point pain and discomfort take over.

Still sniffling away more tears, he moaned softly as he ran his nails up and down his dry, flaking scales. It itched _bad._

He legs ached as he slowly made his way over the the thermostat and cranked the temperature and humidity. He yawned, waving a hand over the radiator to make sure it started pumping out heat. He needed a nap. No, a bath, and then he can take a nap. 

The effort of running a bath sounded excruciating, but his skin annoyingly requested one because it dared to be itchy.

His entire body hurt as he turned the tap to his preferred temperature of boiling. As it filled, Janus indulged himself with running his short, dull nails over every itch, chasing them down his body, trying not to scratch hard enough to hurt himself.

That seemed too easy to do today, though. His scales seemed so much more… delicate, than usual. Even scratching lightly hurt more than it helped. He probably shouldn’t’ve stayed out where it was dry. It was _probably_ gonna make this shed a lot harder than usual. He internally smacked himself, he really shouldn’t play so recklessly with his health. 

He slipped into the toasty tub, sighing deeply as his itchy scales were soothed. The heat sucked the ache from his muscles, moaning as he let himself relax into the water. 

This was how he should’ve spent his morning. Relaxing. Not fretting over Virgil- God dammit.

As soon as he was reminded of Virgil, he started sobbing again. Why, why were his emotions so annoying?!

The next him he woke up, it was to a splash of water hitting him on the face. “Remus?” He said groggily, still waking up.

“Hey Jannie I know you were in the living room today and I’m MAD.” Remus said with a pout, splashing him again. “You shouldn’t have done that! You need _moist_ ure and heat!” Remus just had to say moist weird, didn’t he.

Janus rolled both his eyes and his shoulders. His shed felt loose, but not necessarily ready to come off. “Sorry Rem, y’know it’s hard to ignore a summon.” He mumbled, wiggling his shoulders to deal with that annoying itch.

Remus gave him a once over. “Do you need help?”

Janus thought for a second. Remus was never, never supposed to help him with his shed. 

Because it was hard to reach every inch, Jan needed someone to help peel off his shed. The problem was, that person had to be gentle, calm, and focused.

Remus was none of those things. Especially right now. The twitch in his fingers, the way he vibrated, clearly he was stressed out of his mind. Probably worried about Janus.

But… there was no one else. Virgil wasn’t there anymore.

His heart hurts. He wants to trust Remus, but he shouldn’t. He wants Virgil back, but he can’t.

“I know I’m not Virgil, but-“ Remus twisted his hands around each other. “It looks pretty loose around your back, and you have to get it off eventually.”

Janus sighed. He was right, he wasn’t Virgil. But who else did he have? 

“Okay.” Remus jumped up and down with excitement. “But you have to be careful! Insanely careful!”

Remus nodded frantically, hands shaking as he roughly turned Janus around. “You won’t regret this!”

Virgil knew Janus was in shed, yeah, but why should he care? What did it matter if Jan has practically begged him to help? They weren’t friends anymore. He didn’t care.

He blasted his music, trying to block out the thoughts of Janus, alone and suffering-

Suddenly, his door came crashing down.

“What the FUCK?!” He yelled, fully prepared to punch Remus in the face. He knew it was Remus immediately, who else would kick his door down?

“Virgil, I fucked up.”

“I don’t wanna talk to you.” He was not digging the duke out of another mistake.

“Please!” Virgil rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what I did wrong, I was helping Jan with his shed and then I pulled too hard and just… it all came off!” Remus was crying, actually crying! “He’s bleeding out, Virge! What if I killed him?!”

Instantly he was gripped with panic. Janus was bleeding?! Was he crazy? He knew Remus was too violent to help him!

He shook his head to clear it. No. He didn’t care about Janus. He gave up on Jan a long time ago. He turned around, opening his phone again.

“Are you fucking stupid?!” Remus shouted. “Are you just gonna leave him to suffer?!”

“Fix your own mistakes.” He snapped. “He’s not my problem anymore.”

Before Virgil could say anything else, the breath was knocked out of his chest.

Remus grabbed him by his shirt collar, slamming him against the wall with enough force to bruise.

“Listen here, fucker. I know I made a mistake, but I can’t fix it, I’m only gonna make it worse. So you need to get your head out of your ass and FUCKING HELP HIM! I don’t care if you hate him now or whatever, he’s DYING, you goddamn asshole!” 

Remus spat in his face, before tossing him back on his bed, the bed frame digging into his knees as he fell. Virgil wiped the spit off his face and scowled.

He glared at Remus, before softening. “Is he really hurt?”

“Godamnit, Virge. You think I’d be here if he wasn’t?!”

Virgil nodded, standing up. “Well let’s go then! Hurry up, slowpoke!” He scowled, shoving Remus out his door.

They ran to Janus’ room as fast as they could. As Virgil got closer, he heard wails, cries, and worst of all, panicked screaming. 

He flung open the door to see Janus, thrashing around his bed, clutching chunks of bleeding skin that hung off his body in sickening strips. He looked as though he’d been run through a paper shedder.

He locked eyes, watery, fearful eyes with Virgil and screamed.

“HELP ME!” He shrieked. “PLEASE MAKE IT STOP, PLEASE!” He appeared to be delirious, as he tried in vain to put his skin back where it belonged. At least the first layer over the scales on his back and shoulder had been ripped off, blood pouring over the normally vibrant green. Blood trickled down his thin frame, over the divots between his rips, soaking the sheets below him.

Despite his grudge, his rejection, his hatred of Janus, Virgil knew this was his fault. If he had only helped him sooner, they wouldn’t be in this mess…

“Okay, okay, we need- we need to staunch the blood, right?!” Virgil swallowed the lump in his throat, but it didn’t want to go down into his stomach.

“I don’t know! I can’t believe I did this to him…” Virgil knew he couldn’t count on Remus right now, the duke was shaking, terrified of hurting Janus more.

“Help me! Help me please, please make it stop, it hurts, please…” Janus cried, tears pouring down his face. Remus rushed forward, comforting him as gently as he could. 

“Shh shh shh, it’s okay, we’re gonna make it okay, I’m so, so so sorry, Jan. I fucked up so bad, but we’re gonna fix it, okay?”

Virgil summoned a cloth and pressed it to the exposed scales, blood still steadily flowing from them. Janus yipped, gritting his teeth with the pain. “Ow!”

“I know it hurts.” Virgil said, as comfortingly as he could, pressing hard on Janus’ back to stop the bleeding. Red tinged his white cloth as he pushed harder.

“Ow!” Janus yelped again, balling up his fists and shaking with pain. “Stop, stop please!”

“I can’t, Jan, it’s still bleeding.” Virgil said, checking under the cloth and rearranging it so it didn’t become too saturated with blood.

“Remus, run a bath.” The blood covered Janus’ whole lower body. 

Remus nodded, face pale, and he ran to the bathroom, muttering under his breath. Virgil could only assume the duke was beating himself to shreds over this, but he had to handle one problem at a time.

After a while of hard pressure, the bleeding finally started slowing down. Finally, it stopped, and Virgil could breathe easy again. 

Carefully, so it didn’t start bleeding again, Virgil hoisted Janus up into his arms and carried him slowly to the bathroom.

Looking down at the face of his self-proclaimed enemy, he couldn’t help but soften. He hated Janus, despised him… right? It had always been that way since he left. He hated Janus, didn’t give a single fuck about what happened to him.

But if that was true, why did he feel so… upset, that Janus was hurt? If he didn’t care, he shouldn’t be trying to help him.

He especially shouldn’t feel so… so… _sad_ , when Jan whimpered and yelled as he was picked up, clearly still in so much pain. He shouldn’t tenderly lay him in the bath, cringing as Janus’ nails dig into his arms, reluctant to let go. He especially shouldn’t pity him as he screams upon his torn skin meeting the water, trying to scramble back into Virgil’s hold.

He shouldn’t want to keeping holding on.

“It hurts! No- please!” Janus shouted as he slowly got lowered into the water.

Virgil let him go, cringing as the water tinged pink with the blood washing off of him. “We’re going to need to cut the loose skin off, so new layers can start to build.” Virgil said through gritted teeth. He didn’t want to cause Janus any more pain. 

But it had to be done. He summoned a pair of scissors and got a good look at Janus’ back.

While the old shed had been completely removed, Remus had ripped off a sizeable chunk of shed that wasn’t quite ready yet, and was still attached to the scales before being hastily pulled. Virgil started to cut away at the bloody, ragged tissue, while Remus held Janus still. Any movement could rip more of the shed.

“Rem, can you summon me some gauze?” Virgil asked, snipping as close to Jan’s body as he dared. Remus nodded frantically, summoning white, soft gauze. Virgil set the scissors down and started to gently clean and wrap the wound. Janus hissed and pulled away from the warm washcloth on his exposed, tender scales, but Remus held him in place.

It hurt, god it hurt. The cloth was soaked with some sort of disinfectant that _burned_ as it cleaned his fleshy wound. Janus screamed, thrashing, desperate to get out of Remus’ hold, to soothe the pain, to just make it stop for once.

His eyes snapped to Virgil’s hand holding the cloth, and he lunged. 

“BASTARD!” Virgil shouted, dropping the cloth to clutch his now bleeding hand. The puncture wound was small, but deep. He cleaned it easily and started to bandage it himself. 

While he wrapped gauze around the back of his hand, he cursed Janus out for biting him. The idiot, he was trying to help!

Virgil slammed down the gauze on the tile floor next to him, fed up. “Why am I even here?!” He shouted, voice cracking. “You don’t want me here, I don’t want to help you! I hate you!”

Tears bubbled to the corners of his eyes. He was so stupid, stupid for trying to help his _enemy_.

“I hate you!” He repeated, sobbing, trying to make himself believe it.

Hiccuping, sobbing, he picked the cloth up, and started to clean the injury again. “I HATE YOU!” He screamed, carefully wiping the blood, revealing soft, unprotected green scales. “I HATE YOU YOU BASTARD AND YOU BETTER NOT DIE ON ME!” He grabbed the roll of gauze and began to gently wrap bandages around Janus’ torso. The care and attention of the action didn’t match his words. 

Virgil’s hands shook wildly as he began to sob, and Remus had to take the gauze from him. Virgil’s breath came faster and faster as he buried his face in his bloodstained hands. His tears made the already dried blood run down his wrists again, diluting until it dripped off his elbows and onto the tiled floor.

If he had only helped Janus when he asked, they wouldn’t be in this mess. His stupid fucking pride, keeping him from doing his own job! He was the protector! People weren’t supposed to get hurt if he was protecting them!

But he left, and abandoned Remus and Janus. How could he?! A protector is supposed to stay by his friends no matter what!

“Hey. Hey Virge, breathe for me, okay?” Something smelled like mud and sweat…

He took in a shuttering breath, coming back to find himself wrapped in Remus’ embrace. “Breathe, Virge. He’s okay, you did fine, he’s not gonna die, at least he shouldn’t, unless something gets infected-“

Virgil shook his head frantically. “S-shut up.” He choked out.

Remus pulled back and looked Virgil in the eyes. “Breathe in. Hold. Keep holding. Now breath out. Slow.”

After a few rounds, his tears slowed, and he could breathe again. “Is Janus okay?” He asked, wiping his eyes.

“He’s okay. Are you okay?” Remus never liked when Virgil panicked, he always thought he wouldn’t be able to snap himself out of it. 

Virgil nodded and looked back at Janus, slumped against the tiled wall, wrapped in clean white bandages and clearly trying to sleep. 

He whined high and loud. “Itches.” He mumbled, using his palm to rub the bandage against his old shed that hadn’t come off yet.

“Oh, sorry about that Jannie.” The snake gave a very unhappy looking pout. “Hey, how else do you suppose we wrap your wound?” Instead of answering Janus just whined more annoyingly and scrubbed his palms against his face. He tried to remember what just happened, but god, he was so tired, and the pain was messing with his perception.

It all felt like a blur of agony. He vaguely noticed there was someone else in the room besides Remus, but he was much too tired to address that.

Instead, he stumbled out of the bath. His legs hurt, unable to support his weight and the pull of his injured back made him cry out in pain.

He fell into a soft, warm chest, that felt very nice on his itchy face.

“Hi- okay, you good, Jan?”

The chest spoke, and Janus struggled to respond. “Tired.” He managed to let out.

“Let’s get you into bed, then.” He was being dragged out of the bathroom, he knew that much. He still didn’t know who was leading him, but he didn’t really care.

His bed was soft. Really soft. Clouds definitely weren’t this soft, and nothing could be more comfortable. He laid on his stomach, his back too sore to put weight on. His head hit the pillow and he sighed in contentment. 

“Can you open your eyes, please?” A cool hand brushed his bangs away from his face. He struggled to crack his eyes open, but when he did…

“Virgil?” He mumbled.

He couldn’t bring himself to be upset, angry, or even embarrassed, that Virgil was here. That Virgil helped him. All he felt was a deep sort of relief and content happiness.

Virgil was here. Virgil came. Virgil _stayed_.

“Hey Jan.” He said with a tired grin. “You’re gonna tell the light sides about your shedding.”

“But I don’t wanna.” Jan mumbled, turning onto his side away from Virgil.

“Hey. Look at me.” Janus groaned, turning back over to look at his enemy. Can he even consider Virgil his enemy after he stayed and helped him so much?

“You have to tell them.” Virgil’s eyes were dark and serious. “What you did today was so, so risky Jan. And I’m assuming you did it out of pride or embarrassment or something, but this whole situation would’ve been avoided if you just shedded like you were supposed to.” Janus scoffed. Was what he did risky? Yes. But it was over and done with. 

“Jan, if you had stayed where it was warm and humid, it wouldn’t have been so itchy, and then you wouldn’t have been so desperate to get it off, so you wouldn’t have taken Remus’ suggestion.”

Janus didn’t appreciate being lectured. He growled under his breath and gave him a snarl.

“He’s right, Jan.” Remus’ long, sharp nails lightly raked over the scales in his back calves. Janus purred happily, nothing helped calm his temper like scratching an itch.

“Little to the left.” He mumbled, and Remus happily scratched the perfect spot. Janus slurred and moaned his thanks like a drunk man getting a bad blowjob.

“You’re gonna tell them.” Virgil repeated. Janus tiredly punched his pillow, whining how much he did not want to do that. “Fine, then I’ll tell them.” 

That was a much better plan. He could live with that. That way, he didn’t have to face the awkward embarrassment of explaining it. Virgil could do it all for him.

“You go do that.” He slurred, nuzzling his pillow again. “Rem, hip.”

“Left or right?”

“Right.” God bless Remus’ long nails. The duke either had mangled claws or acrylics on 24 hours a day, both of which were perfect for this job. 

“Wait, can I actually go tell them?” Virgil clarified, lowering himself down to look Janus in the eyes. He squinted kind of adorably, Jan noticed, with his nose all scrunched, like he couldn’t believe what Jan was saying.

Janus nodded, gently shutting his eyes. “Go ahead. I’m gonna get scratches and sleep.”

“Okay.” Virgil patted Janus’ head, kind of how you would pet a dog you were unfamiliar with. “Have a good sleep, Jan.” Janus vaguely noticed Virgil opening his phone, dialling a number. He certainly felt the mattress dip beside him as Virgil laid down, and heard the loud squeak of the bed frame as Remus flopped onto the squishy comforter.

And then he didn’t notice anything, as he drifted off to sleep.

He woke up to muffled voices all around his bed. His face scrunched up with annoyance. Who would dare be talking so much while he was trying to shed?! 

He groaned loudly, flipping his pillow around to slam it over his ears.

“Oh, he’s awake.”

“Fuck off.” He said, fully aware no one would be able to hear him with his head slammed under a pillow.

“Jan? Wanna come out and talk to us for a bit, sweetie?” Jan did not want to talk to them. He wanted…

He wanted his damn itchy bandages off. 

Stupid things, rubbing against his shed and blocking him from itching it. He squirmed, rubbing his scales against the softness of his sheets. It didn’t help. 

“He’s just itchy.” That was Remus’ voice.

Though he did not want to, he put the pillow back where it belonged, under his head, and tried to sit up. 

His arms ached, shaking as he tried to push his own body weight off the bed. His elbow buckled, and he felt a firm, secure hand on his chest, helping to lift him into a seated position.

“Rem…” he mumbled, once he got seated leaning on his bed’s headboard. “Water…” His throat was dry and his tongue felt swollen. A water bottle was pushed into his shaking hands and he brought it to his lips, hastily gulping it down. 

Thirst quenched, he opened his eye a little clearer and focused on his surroundings. Remus was on the bed beside him, on his right, a grin on his face. Patton was off the bed on his left, looking concerned. And Roman was leaning against the wall opposite Janus, arms crossed and eyebrow raised in sceptical disapproval.

There was no Virgil to be seen.

“Where’s Virge?” He asked, voice flat and still slurred with sleep, but it was now tinged with distress. “Did he leave again?”

Oh god, here comes the wave. He cannot start crying! Patton will lose his mind with worry or worse he’ll start crying too!

_But Virgil left again, because he doesn’t actually care about you, because he was only helping you to make himself feel less guilty-_

Oh here comes the waterworks. He bursts into tears with such sudden, violent force, he was surprised the others in the room didn’t get soaked. 

“Hey, hey! What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Patton asked quickly. “Is there something we can do?” The father figure knelt down by Janus so they would be eye level, and gently took both of his hands. “What’s wrong, kiddo?” 

Janus only cried harder. Virgil was gone, and now Patton and Roman had seen him in such a pathetic state! Wasn’t this what he was trying to hide in the first place?

He didn’t want them to care, they should just leave like Virgil and not care about him anymore!

“He gets crying fits sometimes, you just kinda have to roll with them.” Remus said over Janus’ loud sobs. “He’s probably worried about you guys thinking his crusty face is gross.” 

He was not worried about that- well, he was now that Remus mentioned it. 

“It’s not gross sweetie!” Patton reassured him, but of course, he only wailed louder and higher.

“You should’ve told us sooner, we would’ve helped you.” Roman said from the wall.

Remus sighed deeply and stood up, walking over to grab Janus’ tissue box from its spot on top of his dresser. “Guys, you’re not gonna calm him down. He’ll just stop or fall asleep.” 

Instead of pulling away though, Patton grabbed the half full water bottle and gently held it out to Janus. “Drink something, kiddo.” Remus looked at him sceptically, but Patton gave him a bright smile. “You can’t drink, breathe and cry at the same time.”

Indeed, as Janus took the water bottle, he had to steady his breathing in order to drink.

“I guess that works.” The twins said in unison, which should be creepy, but it happened so often it no longer was. 

Janus took a couple gulps of water and tried to calm down. “I-I’m sorry, I just get really- really emotional.” He stuttered out, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. God, he sounded like a teen girl!

“It’s alright, kiddo, I know this is hard for you. Remus explained what happened yesterday, and I agree.” Patton lovingly began to pet Janus’ hair, tucking it back behind his ear. “You really should’ve told us what was going on, kiddo. We would’ve helped you.”

“I-I know that!” Janus shouted, balling the blankets up in his fists. “I just…”

“Shhh. You don’t have to explain anything right now.” Patton said soothingly, taking Janus’ hand and giving it a squeeze.

“W-where’s Virgil? Did he le- did he go back to his room?” Janus asked, pulling his hand out of Patton’s grip. Most likely, Virgil told them, and, now satisfied that he wouldn’t die, went back to do his own thing. Obviously. Why did Janus ever think he’d actually care?

“Oh no, kiddo, he’s-“

“Hey guys, we managed to cook something up, dunno if it’ll work though-“ Virgil, that was _Virgil_ , coming through his door, coming _back_.

Janus burst into tears again.

All he heard was Virgil cursing, shoving something at Logan and jumping on his bed.

“You woke up! Sorry I left, Logan wanted me to help him make some medicine for you.” He said happily, grabbing a couple tissues to wipe Janus’ tears. “Are you crying because you thought I left, like, for good?” He asked, a little quieter and softer.

Janus debated lying and deflecting, but nodded anyway.

“Oh fuck, I’m sorry. I should’ve stayed after the way I acted yesterday.”

Janus shrugged, sniffling a little from all the crying. “It’s s’okay...”

“No it’s not, I made you cry.” Virgil tenderly wiped the tears off of his scaled cheek.

“You didn’t make me cry, my hormones are stupid.” Janus spat, grabbing his wrist to hold his hand in place. He nuzzled his face against his palm, smiling with contentment. 

“Ohhh, you just wanted me here to be your fucking scratching post.” Virgil said with a smirk, curling his fingers to allow Janus to use his nails. 

“Noooo…” he slurred, smirking. Oh, Virgil’s nails felt really nice.

“Is it really that bad?” Janus stopped, looking up and across the room. Roman was propped against the wall like a broom, arms crossed, legs folded at the ankle.

Now, while Roman didn’t mean to be rude, he never did, really, he didn’t like being out of the spotlight. The prince thrives on attention, and right now, Janus was taking all of it.

“What?” Janus asked, sitting up a little higher.

Roman shrugged. “It’s just… it can’t be that bad, right? It’s just a rash.”

“It’s not that easy, kiddo.” Patton started, but Janus huffed and cut him off.

“You don’t know what it’s like.” He said, a dark tone to his voice.

Roman scoffed. “But, you’re milking this? Right? For attention?” 

“No.” Oh his voice was full of venom now. Roman was calling _him_ an attention hog? Something dark and hot swirled in his gut, a dark and pulsing rage that bubbled up through his system.

“Okay, but like, it’s not bad enough for you to be bedridden, right?”

That was it. His eye twitched as he raised his hand.

Roman’s eyes widened, and he let out a choked gasp. 

His body felt like it was on _fire_. Very, very itchy fire. A sickening, burning sensation all the way down his chest, his forearms, the back of his calves, everywhere. From his bones came a deep-rooted ache that made him stumble where he stood. He wanted to rip his skin off, and sleep for a thousand years.

Then all of a sudden, it was completely gone.

Roman panted, bent over at the knee, scratching hard at his arms. “What was that?!”  
“I simply gave onto you what I am experiencing.” Janus said.

“That… that was hell!”

“I know.”

Roman paused, looking down at the floor in front of him, then slowly raised his head. “Do you feel like that… now?”

“Not really. It’s better now. Still itchy though.” Janus tacked on the last part kind of offhandedly, but Roman’s ears perked up.

The prince strutted forward confidently, a bright smile on his face. “Budge up.” He said, and Janus hesitated before shifting forward. Roman swung his legs over and sat behind Janus.

Gently, oh so gently, Roman ran his nails all over Janus’ shoulders, scratching right to the edge of the bandages and just slightly under them.

Janus _melted_. “Ohh, thank you…” He moaned, slumping against Roman’s hand as the prince didn’t neglect a single itchy spot.

“You’re so brave.” Roman said, in a very small, awed voice.

Janus blinked, shocked. Roman… thought he was brave? Roman never admitted when someone was better than him. And he thought Janus was brave? Just for existing?

“Can I remove his bandages?” Roman’s voice snapped him back to reality.

“Yes. We have a cream medicine that should help heal the injury.” Logan said, pulling the lid off a jar of white cream that smelled suspiciously like mint.

He passed the cream to Roman, and helped him carefully remove the bandages around his torso. As they fell away, Janus scratched at his sides, chest and back, that had been trapped in stifling bandages. Roman quickly smacked them away, and took up the job himself.

It felt much better having someone else scratch his itches for him. 

Roman paused, getting a glob of cream on his fingers and carefully rubbed it over the injured scales. “There we go, Mr. Lies.” He said, continuing his job of back scratcher.

“Thank you, Roman.” He said sincerely.

Patton gave Janus a pat on the leg and a cheery smile. “We’re at your service for the rest of your sickness.”

Janus smiled back, suddenly feeling a tug on his shoulder. “Yuck! Guys, this is ready to come off.” Roman said, pulling a little harder at the skin, which was peeling away with ease.

Janus stretched his arms up, groaning a little as his muscles protested, before slowly rolling his body forward to lie on his stomach. “Get it off, then.” He said with a kind of bored smile, eyes fluttering closed. His sore body melted into the soft mattress as Roman scratched every inch of scales, paying particular attention to the places that had been covered by bandages.

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Oh right, I forgot your only emotions while shedding are sad and sassy.”

Janus pouted, reaching over to smack him on the calf. “Oh, and all the skin goes to Remus.” He remarked. 

Remus smiled eerily wide and clapped his hands, overjoyed. “More skin!” 

Janus rolled his eyes. Maybe shedding with his friends around wasn’t too bad.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work on AO3 so thanks for reading  
> Also thx to the discord server for this idea


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